What is your opinion regarding the repeal of rent control towards Georgetown?
Has the development of Georgetown became better or worst since year 2000?
Has the development of Georgetown became better or worst since year 2000?
Thank you all for the comments shared.
11 comments:
Hard to know where to begin. The repeal of rent control came about at the sme time as a massive social change due to urban planning policies or lack of them.
The breakdown of the extended family and division between home and business has been supported or caused by the change in housing and business patterns which inturn has been directed by 'cost effective' development projects.
It also reflects the rising prosperity or credit debt of the population and their support for the national car industry.
The wholesale marketing drive towards highrise, freeway life and shopping mall culture has left the inner city with few friends. The repeal alone did not do this, but an amalgum of changes. Now we are left with a fragile balance of a few enchanted gentrifiers, a few hangers on, and an enormous number of empty and derelict properties.
The potential in the inner city is new housing for the working classes and the remaining historic properties restored by foreigners and a few passionate locals.
I don't think i'll b able 2 give any academia opinion towards this question...
Well,as i can see, the development of PEnang/Georgetown is quite rapid - the Penang Times Square was build, and the Jelutong Highway is completed...I think, all this should bring us to a new era of technology and advancement, but i din see any different- traffic jam remained (increased the volumme of polution, i guess)
i regret tat i din see anything turn out better, really..
I can't comment on the Rent Control Act, but as for development in Georgetown, it is pretty hard to pinpoint an improvement.
Despite the addition of new highways (or should I say just one) and buildings (mostly for commercial purposes), the mindset of the people have not changed. We have moved forward infrastructure-wise, but when it comes to basic civic-consciousness things haven't changed at all. This is definitely not a good sign as the buildings and roads are poorly maintained by both the public and government.
I'm currently staying at Balik Pulau, and we seem to have less cows and more cars here these days.
Since the repeal of the Rent Control Act the people of Penang has been disappeared from the inner town area and that led to disserted and ghost town during the night
The economic of the inner circle has brought to the downtrend and standstill which reflected to the downfall of KOMTAR today.
The area especially Campbell Street was once the most busiest area are also left to a standstill and ghost town during the night after 6.30p.m.
Houses in many places are left in very dilapidated, awesome and eyesore states
So what benefits with decontrol which is the result of lack of in depth research and implementation
Don't know much about rent control, but in terms of developement, Georgetown's has been slow but certain and I like it that way. Slow is good, particularly for Georgetown, where the greatest challenge would be her sheer density, the fact that every new development entails something old being torn down. Georgetown should maintain its identity and new townships should be developed to share the load. I think that's what we're doing and I think its the right thing to do.
as i understand it, the rent control act affects mostly properties in the inner town area of georgetown, the once prosperous trading area of penang. since the demise of the state's role in entrepot trading which was the lifeblood of the state's wealth, there has not been a massive turnaround done to revive it. perhaps what the state government did was merely to allow free market forces to regenerate the area. as we can see, we now have the marina centre located next to the ferry point (a white elephant by the state or a potential cash-spinner?) and i envisage seeing more such developments within the town area in years to come as more people move out from the town area (due to higher rent and shift in economic opportunities in the state). i personally lived in one of those shophouses in beach street and have since moved out from the property since the massive hike in rent by the landlord. sad as it may seem for the culture and identity of those built up the area (eg local traders chipping in to yearly hungry ghost festivals and operas in town may start to become extinct), this is unfortunately the downside of development. nevertheless, the state while working with and allowing more free market forces to regenerate penang, this should be based on the common good of equal social and economic opportunities for all citizens in penang..
*Extracted from Penang Watch*
When the rental decontrol was implemented it was immediately after the financial crisis in 1988 -with residential and office properties stacking up sky high literally, with not enough buyers. The effect of pushing another thousand of pre-war houses into the same market probably prompted some conservative property managers to forecast that Penang need at least 10 years to digest the property overhang. The continuing `ghost town' condition in George Town shows that it may actually take even longer -now that 7 years had past ! That is about wrong timing.
George Town happened to be the location where pre-war houses are concentrated to the highest degree -not just in Malaysia -but probably in the whole of S. E. Asia ! Penang is in a unique position to tap into this cultural heritage -thus removing the rental control without some heritage friendly alternatives in place is follies of the highest degree ! After 7 years the absence of any alternative at all -not to mention heritage friendly ones, shows that the state and federal government had no sense of location when they left George Town's landowners to chase away the guardians of their heritage properties ! With 500 buildings in various stages of delipidations shows that it could well have been ruined by some rampaging outsiders ! That is something about doing something in the wrong place.
All cities undergo a pattern of urbanisation and suburbanisation which correspond to inward and then outward population shifts -mediated by property prices. Thus Penang was approaching the watershed if not already cross the stage of suburbanisation (KL cross its population peak in around 1995) before the rental decontrol. Moderating this trend should be a more relevant policy than accelerating it with rental decontrol. CM Dr Koh said he couldn't do anything about a natural trend -when he actually accelerated the natural trend at the time ! Some European cities even subsidise their inner city residents for hanging around the heritage, historical areas -what a contrast to our short sighted politicians (pun not intended)!
Ong BK
SOS Coordinator
The repeal of the rent control act has affected the socialstructure of the people living in the city.As rents went up (people enjoy the low rental for many years)sky high compared to what the tenants had been paying before, the tenants could not afford it. Therefore, they had to vacate and move to stay with other relatives or live in flats or apartments. Thus, we see people moving away from the city to the outskirts. School enrolments dropped in the city area. Landed property in Penang is expensive compared to other states in the west coast of peninsular Malaysia.I wonder if a proper in-depth study had been done before introducing this repeal of the rent control act. Abandoned houses had become drug havens for addicts and posed danger to safety.
My 2 sen's worth. The inner city is dead...dying further if there are no plans to build high-rise accommodation like in the Weld Quay; Chinatown; Little India enclave.
Long live the new offices...period.
The authorities must come out with some proper zoning plans of the different areas in George Town and enforce it effectively after the rent control was lifted. Providing good financial incentives to house owners to conserve their homes to re-adaptive uses like what is been done to many historic cities in the developed nations. I strongly oppose the senseless highrise development in inner city with no regards to the infrastructure capacity to cope with the sudden increase in traffic volume and living space congestion besides destroying the character of old George Town as a heritage city. The limited space in the city is no longer suitable for large scale high-density developments as evident from the failure of Komtar project and the ghettos created in the Weld Quay / Noordin St high-rise flats. It should look at utilising its rich architectural and cultural heritage of inner city to enhance its tourism potentials and invite more artisans, craftsmen, artists, professionals and shop and boutique hotel operators to live there. George Town can be modelled like Hoi An in Vietnam or Lijiang in Yunnan and become the most attractive city in Malaysia.
Afterall, George Town only occupies 4% of the total land mass of Penang state. Why must we kill a goose that can lay golden eggs ?
for my 2 cents. i don;t think proper zoning will work as well as if zoning were mark into this order.People will tend to misuse this as to move into that specific zone in order to prevent from paying extra.
However , rent control play a huge part in preserving the culture and heritage that we have today. I guess without them, we will be expecting the KHOO kongsi located in the Gurney Plaza compare to the original place:D
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